Facebook advertising is very advantageous because Facebook is already the largest social media site in the world. Being on the platform allows you to connect to the 2.8 billion active users in the world- that is much more people compared to the audience a very big billboard receives!
Facebook ads are also very user-friendly; you don’t have to be tech-savvy to be able to create an ad and maintain it. And to top it all off, Facebook ads offer a reasonable price, especially considering the reach it can provide you.
1. Identify your objective.
Of course, when going on an ad campaign, you need to know what your goals are to better optimize your ads and promote conversion. Facebook conveniently groups these into 8 categories that you only have to choose from, and they’ll do the rest.
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Brand awareness
The goal of brand awareness is to make your brand known to people. This is especially important if your product or service is relatively new and still unknown to most.
Facebook does this not by indiscriminately blasting ads at everyone, instead, it targets audiences that are more likely to pay attention to your ads. Making your ads more worthwhile and effective.
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Reach
Reach, on the other hand, spreads your ads to the people in a specific area. This is a bit less targeted compared to brand awareness, but maybe more effective depending on what you’re offering.
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App installs
As the name suggests, these ads aim to get people to install your app. Facebook does this by targeting high-value users who will be more likely to download your app and linking them directly to the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
Doing so promotes the downloading of your app because it takes down the hurdle of having to inconveniently switch apps, search in the app store, and looking for that one specific app that was advertised.
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Traffic
This leads more visitors to your page, website, or app, increasing your click-through rate. Facebook will also selectively advertise to those who are more likely to act upon visiting.
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Lead generation
Similar to traffic, lead generation also tries to get people to be interested in what you are offering, but it is not a direct call to visit somewhere. Lead generation will promote people to ask for more info or read more about your product.
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Messages
This type of ad also brings more traffic to your Facebook page, but it focuses more on having visitors message you through Messenger.
This is very valuable because it allows you to interact with potential customers and have personal conversations with them. This allows you to convince them to spend on your brand and it allows you to be a face for your company as well through answering questions, gathering info, and collecting leads.
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Engagement
Engagement refers to people taking specific action on Facebook in the form of the page follows and likes, comments, and shares on your posts. Getting people to follow you means they will see your future posts, in which you could advertise yourself again with more directed content.
Having a high amount of interactions also allows you to place higher on searches and rankings, further increasing traffic to your page.
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Video views
This type of ad targets people who are more likely to be interested in the video and who are more likely to finish the video.
Different products and services warrant different digital advertising tactics. If you are new to it, it could all become overwhelming. It might be best to contact an ad agency specializing in online ads. We at Advantage Attorney Marketing are experienced in digital marketing including advertising on Facebook, conversion tracking, and optimizing web pages. Consult with us today!
2. Choose your audience.
In this step, Facebook will ask for the details of your desired target audience such as their age range, location, interest, behaviors, etc.
Since Facebook is a social media site, users, by default, are independently posting their demographics online. They also can post their location in tags and check-ins as well as the ability to like pages and express their interests.
What this essentially means is that Facebook already has all the information it needs to make targeted ads to a very certain demographic. This is what makes social media advertising such a powerful tool.
3. Pick where to run your ad.
Facebook Inc. is the parent company to not just one social media page, but several of them including Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network.
Instagram focuses on photo-sharing while Messenger is an instant messaging app and Audience Network is an advertising platform that places ads outside Facebook onto different websites.
By running ads on Facebook you can choose to specify where you want your ads to appear- on one site, or an all-giving you an enormous advertising edge. You can even choose to specifically only show ads on specific mobile devices.
5. Determine your budget.
Facebook ads are designed such that you have to set a budget and a period over which that budget will be consumed. This allows you to spread out your budget over a timeframe and make sure that you never overspend.
6. Pick a format.
Facebook offers six ad formats to choose from:
| Type | Description |
| Photo | Simple formats including images and diagrams. |
| Video | Moving picture ad incorporating sound, sight, and motion. Can be of varying lengths and target actions. |
| Stories | Similar to video ads that incorporate movement, stories are more casual and take up the full screen. |
| Messenger | Can include automated and interactive features which all work together to help your business spark conversation with potential customers. |
| Carousel | Ad with different panels that a target can scroll through. |
| Slideshow | Short video-like clips that incorporate text, sound, and motion. |
| Collection | Allows viewers to scroll through different offerings and products, similar to online shopping sites. |
| Playables | App previews that viewers can interact with. Commonly used as a short game preview. |
7. Place order
Once you have focused on an objective, zoned in on an audience, decided where to put your ads, identified your budget, and picked an ad format, you are ready to place your order.
Once you’ve submitted it to Facebook, the Facebook software takes the ad and includes it in the Ad Auction. The Ad Auction is the Facebook algorithm that determines the best time to show an ad to a consumer.
Facebook does this because randomly blasting a person with ads is ineffective as compared to using statistics to numerically identify when a person is most likely to interact with the ad.
Facebook’s approach to this is that it wants to maximize value for both the consumers and the businesses. That is- the business gets a maximal ROI and the consumers will come across ads that matter to them. Facebook computes for this by getting what they call the Total Value which is based on:
- Bidding- the amount the advertiser has paid to achieve the goal.
- Estimated action rates- the probability of conversion if an ad is shown to a particular consumer.
- Ad quality- the actual quality of the ad based on consumer feedback. Ad quality is low for ads that contain clickbait, sensationalization, and intentional withholding of information.
This means that ads have to be constructed in a careful way to maximize their Total Value and “showability”. This also means the inverse- if not constructed carefully, its total value might drop and be ineffective.
To be able to maximize your ads and increase your conversions and clicks, contact us today! We are Advantage Attorney Marketing, an online advertising marketing agency. We will supply you with marketing strategies that will be sure to improve your online placements and draw more traffic to your business.
8. Measure and manage your ad
Once your ad is up and running, you can track its performance on Facebook Ads Manager. This allows you to track the metrics relevant to your ad including views, reach, and engagements.
You will also be able to compare your ads and see which format is more effective and make the changes necessary to optimize your other ads as well.
If you have any questions concerning Facebook marketing, setting up Facebook ad campaigns, or even just media marketing in general, don’t hesitate to contact us. We are Advantage Attorney Marketing, a marketing agency primarily catering towards law firms, and we are committed to making sure your ads are as effective as possible.
